An Artful Gathering

Kreativ Blog Award

I've been bestowed with a Kreativ Blog Award by my sister, Diann - you can see her art here - Diann's Art Spot.  In turn I am to give 3 bloggers this award and make sure I include links to their blogs.  I consider these bloggers - Autumn, Patty and Kris to be very creative artists along with being creative bloggers - they're the best!

Autumn at http://autumnsantics.blogspot.com/

Patty at Magpie's Nest

Kris at Blissfull Elements

After Thanksgiving!

My family had a wonderful Thanksgiving - the children, the son-in-law, and grandchildren were all at home.  We ate a great dinner and after that everyone laid around, read books, watched TV, took naps, sat on the porch, and so forth and so on!  It was a wonderful day!

I now have two Christmas trees up but not decorated - one is the "gingerbread" tree in the kitchen.  The other is in the living room - it holds all the ornaments I've made or collected over the years.  Sometimes I put up a 3rd tree - one with silver spoons tied to the branches - I'm still debating on whether to put that one up.

I'm in a couple of 12 Days of Christmas Swaps - one that I'm hosting is ready to go as I've received all of the gifties.  The other one I can only hope works out - I think I still need 5 more packages so we'll see what Monday brings.  I will be showing pics of the goodies I receive from the 12 Days swap that I am hosting beginning on Monday so check back to see the goodies!

I hosted a Christmas Stocking Swap with 26 participants - I've just finished swapping all those stockings out and will be mailing them out next week.  What a variety - every shape and size you could imagine - here are pics of them:

 

 

 

The Eve of Thanksgiving Day!

What a day - well, what a week I've had.  I created one of my famous lists about a month ago to make sure I was taking care of everything in preparation for my Thanksgiving Day dinner.  I did not do as much as I'd alloted myself yesterday so today has been a bit wild in my house!  I've baked a humongus bunch of sweet potatoes, boiled white potaoes (I'll reheat & mash them tomorrow), cooked butter beans, cooked green beans, and made 8 loaves of cranberry and pumpkin breads - and I am no where near ready!!!!  OH, and the turnip greens are cooking while I'm sitting here blogging.  My feet hurt, my back hurts, and I've been barking out orders to the girlie girls for two days now!!  Later tonight I'll mix my dressing and also bake a couple of pumpkins and that will be it for Wednesday's work!!!!  Tomorrow I want to sit around and not be stuck in the kitchen all day - I think my plan to do everything but the turkey/dressing is going to allow me to do that!  I'll report in tomorrow evening and tell all about my Thanksgiving Day!

Everyone, be sure to give thanks tomorrow for the life we have, the country we live in, all the freedoms that we so enjoy!

Been Cooking Up A Storm!

Today I found myself in the kitchen - cooking, no less!  I used to do quite a bit of cooking but have gotten away from it.  I baked/broiled a bunch of chicken breasts, roasted veggies, made a sausage spaghetti, and an apple crisp with Splenda and Brownies for hubbie.  I also made a corn pudding.  I don't eat corn very ofter but recently I told my sister that I'd been thinking about cooking corn pudding for Thanksgiving - she was shocked because she had been thinking about corn pudding also.  I opened an old cookbook that I enjoy - one I bought in a second hand store when I lived in the Baltimore, MD area long years ago.  It's full of recipes from Baltimore and surrounding areas.  I looked at the corn pudding recipe and since I did not have half & half, I "half-way" followed the recipe adding my own stuff.  Here is the recipe and it is yummy!

Corn Pudding

8x10 (or thereabouts) glass baking dish. 

1 package of crackers (I use a butter cracker from Texas HEB), crushed.  One cellophane package from a box of crackers (8 or so whole crackers)

3 eggs

1 stick margarine, cut into pats

1 5oz. can evaporated milk

2 cups regular milk

2 cups frozen yellow corn

1 15oz. can creamed corn

1/3 cup sugar

salt & pepper

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (this makes it yummy!)

mix all together and bake 350 for approx an hour - stir pudding 2 or 3 times during cooking, but do NOT stir the last 15 minutes of baking - this gives the pudding time to set up.  ENJOY!

Checking in!

Wow, it's been several days since I've attended to my blog - I've been so busy creating gifties for 2 TWO two, yes 2 different 12 Days of Christmas swaps - I finally finished today and am now in the process of hunting down the correct type of boxes to mail these swaps in - yikes, I'm having problems!!!

I also created this little goodie a couple of days ago and thought I'd share it ~

Not Happening!

This morning I chatted on the phone with my sister, Diann - I gave her a run down on my plans for today and what I was going to accomplish - oh my - that was over 6 hours ago and I have yet to do anything I told her about BUT wash off my kitchen cabinets.   I did look for some packed up seashells - that was a bust!  I also pulled out some red cordaroy fabric along with some red striped old homespun looking fabric - I need fabric, sea shells and batting for a small project that has to be done - could not find the batting either - what a day!!  I KNOW I have batting here somewhere - yikes.  OK, I need to move on!  Tonight I will definately get the batting and perhaps some red velvet - ok, that's my new plan!!  Tomorrow will be a better day for creating for sure.

Here is a picture to share with you ~

 

My favorite pin up girl, Hilda!!

TAGGED!

As my sister Diann so aptly put it, "holy cow, I've been tagged".  I was tagged by Diann yesterday - check her out over at Diann's Art Spot.  In turn I am supposed to tag 7 other people and list 7 things about "me".  I am changing the rules a bit - I'm listing 4 things about me and tagging 4 others~

1.  I love black coffee.  (period!)

2.  I'm extremely shy, not a good public speaker at all.

3.  I adore Thanksgiving with all the cooking and prep work and all the company!

4.  I love cardinals and feel my daddy's presence when I see one.

Here are the four people I'm tagging:

1.  Susan at artfulmusings

2.  Kate at fromSaladostudio

3.  Autumn over at AutumnsAntics

4.  Sandy at Stempelchaotin

So Susan, Kate, Autumn, and Sandy you can now "tell all".

Christmas Stockings Galore!

I'm in a Christmas Stocking Book swap -  26 participants - so I've created 26, yes, I said 26!! stockings.  We were given "general" measurements to go by so that all the stockings would be a little bit different.  Once all stockings arrive at my house, I'll slide each set onto a large metal ring and send them on their merry way!  Here are mine:

Have you got your jingle on?

A friend emailed and ask "do you have your jingle on?"   As a matter of fact I do - now I'm not trying to skip fall with it's beautiful colors.  With it's leaves softly floating down from the trees, and the smell of woodsmoke, along with one of the most wonderful times of the year - Thanksgiving!  No I am not - I can switch gears at any time!!!  But yes I do have my jingle on!! 

I've been so busy creating a set of 26 Christmas stockings for a swap I'm involved in.  So there are Christmas decorative papers, Christmas ribbons and little jingle bells, and lace and those "base" stockings all over my worktable.  Tomorrow I hope to post a pic of one of my creations.   When I receive the 26 sets of stockings I will swap them out and create a simple Christmas Stocking Book for each participant.  I'm also in the midst of planning two Christmas parties along with making 3 books for the girly girls.  These books will have  "wish list" pages and blank pages along with a couple of envelopes - I want them to make all kinds of Christmas lists and stuff those envies with whatever they want to.  Also the blank pages will be ideal for glueing catalog pictures onto - doncha just like that idea!!!  I am also in 2 ~ two ~ TWO ~ 12 Days of Christmas swaps - oh my, how did that happen!  And I'm discussing a Christmas banner for my blog with friend Kris Hurst.  (I hope the Halloween lovely is soon gone!)  Kris is a wonderful maker of banners - check her out by looking at the top right side of my blog!!!  Yes, Christmas is in the air & I got my JINGLE ON!!

OK, now that I've answered the I'VE GOT MY JINGLE ON question I've decided to send this question to 3 friends, who in turn will answer the question on their blogs and then pass it along to 3 of their friends.  Be sure to mention my blog and also the blogs that you are sending the question to ~

 

Diann, Gina, Barbara you're being asked, "Do You Have Your Jingle On?